The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation’s board of directors has approved resolutions to acquire by eminent domain portions of seven adjacent properties along the rail corridor as construction continues toward Kakaako.
The seven parcels, all owned by Kamehameha Schools, are mainly commercial lands on or near the mauka side of Dillingham Boulevard affected by the presence of Skyline’s elevated guideway.
HART claims long-standing negotiations between the rail agency and Kamehameha Schools to obtain the sites, which stretch from Waiakamilo Road to Kahou Street, have stalled. That delay, HART says, necessitates the city’s condemnation of the properties.
In some cases, sections of the properties desired by HART range in size from approximately 100 square feet to over 6,600 square feet.
Those sites will be used for the placement of guideway columns and to grant easement rights to Hawaiian Electric Co. so the utility can locate above- and below-ground power lines, electrical transformers and related equipment along the route, according to HART.
The properties include:
>> Dillingham Business Center at 1404 Colburn St.
>> Waiakamilo Shopping Center at 1414 Dillingham Blvd.
>> Bob’s Bar-B-Que at 1366 Dillingham Blvd.
>> Max Motors at 1350 and 1354 Dillingham Blvd.
>> Siam Cafe at 1336 Dillingham Blvd.
>> Kapalama Shopping Center at 1210 Dillingham Blvd.
>> Excellent Auto at 1190 Dillingham Blvd.
On Dec. 20, the HART board voted to notify the Honolulu City Council of its intent to acquire the properties under eminent domain. The Council has 45 days from the board’s vote to approve or object to the condemnation.
Upon approval or no action by the Council, the HART board will be requested to approve a resolution authorizing the acquisition of the properties.
After the Dec. 20 vote, Kamehameha Schools issued a statement indicating it is willing to continue discussions on the pending eminent domain action.
“For a decade, Kamehameha Schools has worked collaboratively with HART to explore how our aina can support the development of Honolulu’s rail transit system, while upholding our kuleana to our educational mission, beneficiaries, tenants and community,” the statement reads. “We remain focused on continuing discussions with HART and other parties to reach an agreement.”
HART, meanwhile, offered little information about the status of negotiations with the landowner.
“Regarding the Kamehameha School’s properties, the discussions are ongoing, and HART is not able to provide any details of the negotiations while we are trying to reach an agreement,” Joey Manahan, HART’s director of government relations and public involvement, said via email.
Before the board’s vote, HART Director of Transit Property Acquisition and Relocation Krista Lunzer told the panel’s Project Oversight Committee that a majority of the properties in question lie along the “frontage” of Dillingham Boulevard, where the guideway is part of the so-called Mauka Shift.
The Mauka Shift, according to HART, refers to the plan to move a section of the rail guideway from the center of Dillingham to the mauka side of the busy street.
That shift, the agency claims, will save time and money for the nearly $10 billion rail project by eliminating the need to relocate certain utilities — namely, two above-ground, 138-kilovolt power transmission lines as well as 12- and 48-kilovolt power lines on the makai side of the thoroughfare.
Moving the guideway to the mauka side of the street eliminates the need to bury all of the power lines on the makai side and avoids the need to move other existing underground utilities, thereby improving the project schedule and reducing costs by approximately $150 million, according to HART.
Due to the Mauka Shift, Lunzer said, Skyline’s guideway will be on or above the Kamehameha School properties. Associated Hawaiian Electric easements are also needed as part of the rail project.
“So the primary need has to do with the guideway, but there’s also a HECO element,” she added.
During the Dec. 20 meeting, HART board member Robert Yu questioned how the rail’s guideway will “affect those businesses, like Siam Cafe and Waiakamilo Shopping Center.”
“Does this create an extra burden?” he asked.
In response, Lunzer said buildings with affected businesses are “allowed to remain.”
“We do have a provision in the easement that the buildings will not be removed by HART. They’re allowed to stay there, so there’s no impact that way,” she explained. “If in the future the buildings would be removed, there would be an inability to reconstruct in that area.”
To that, Yu asked, “When you say in the future, if they have to remove the building and rebuild, is that part of HART’s responsibility in the future?”
“So that may be a negotiated term,” Lunzer replied.
Yu queried further, “When you say it may be in the negotiated terms, you mean in the current negotiation or a negotiation sometime in the future?”
“Whatever is decided would need to be done now, and we would renegotiate it later on,” she replied. “It would be done before we finalize the transaction through either condemnation or settlement.”
Board Vice Chair Kika Bukoski asked whether “there are any above-ground construction activities that will actually impact pieces” of the properties.
“I’m specifically looking at Waiakamilo and Max Motors,” he said. “So are the columns (for the guideway) going to be on the businesses’ property?”
Lunzer replied that “half of a guideway column” would be built on a portion of the Max Motors property.
“So that would impact that property,” she added, noting there would be a loss of possibly four parking spaces on that site.
In addition, HART appraised the various properties, and “written offers were provided to Kamehameha Schools,” she said.
“And HART and Kamehameha Schools have been negotiating terms of a settlement agreement for quite some time that would allow for access to the (properties) for construction purposes before we finally close on the grants of easement.
“While the agreements have been negotiated or have been in the process of being negotiated, short-term rights of entry have been provided to HART to allow for utility work,” Lunzer said. “So we have been doing some of the utility work already on these properties, with Kamehameha Schools’ cooperation.”
In October, HART requested an extension to the rights of entry with an expanded scope of work that would allow for continued construction activities, she said.
“And Kamehameha Schools extended the rights of entry but did not include our expanded scope of work,” she said. “Without access to the properties to do the work that we need, HART will not be able to adhere to the construction timeline, thereby jeopardizing the overall project schedule.”
In order to obtain access to the properties “it is necessary to refer these transactions to condemnation,” she added.
“We’ll continue to try to negotiate a settlement with Kamehameha Schools. That’s always our goal, even once we start this approval process,” Lunzer said.
No one from the public testified at the board meeting.
Ultimately, HART’s full board voted to approve the resolutions toward condemnation of the seven properties.
